Vijesti ROMI.HR

On June 2, the European Commission against Racism and Intolerance published its conclusions on the progress made by the Republic of Serbia regarding to implementation of two recommendations made in 2017 that needed to be addressed in the first place. So far, ECRI has been only partially satisfied with the progress made.

The first recommendation related to the adoption of the code of conduct by the Serbian Parliament and the Serbian government, which prohibits use of hate speech, foresees suspension of mandate and imposition of other sanctions for the Serbian officials violating these rules and create effective reporting channels. ECRI welcomed the improvements made to the Rules of Procedure of the Serbian Parliament which prohibit the Serbian officials from using insulting expressions when commenting court decisions including those concerning war crimes that still create a great deal of tension between Serbia and other countries of former Yugoslavia. However, ECRI saw no progress made by the Serbian government with regard to the adoption of rules prohibiting the use of hate speech by its members and imposition of the tangible sanctions as well as creating effective reporting mechanism on grave violations.

The second recommendation of ECRI was to give priory to Roma and other minorities
in Serbia when hiring civil servants and guarantee them equal working conditions with representatives of other nationalities. In spite of the existence of an Action plan for the realization of the Rights of national minorities that seeks to provide proportionate representation of the members of national minorities in the public sector, ECRI saw few proofs that real progress had been achieved in this direction so far. On the contrary, figures given even by the Serbian authorities reveal a very low number of Roma employed in the public sector and show their little interest in the programs initiated by the government aimed to promote social integration of Roma and other nationalities. Apart from this, ECRI has neither received nor found any evidence of Roma and other national minorities benefiting from equal working conditions with other civil servants.

The European Commission against Racism and Intolerance was established in 1993
in the framework of the Council of Europe to combat racism, xenophobia, antisemitism, intolerance and different kind of discrimination. ECRI regularly prepares reports and recommendations that are however not binding to member States.